Monday, 13 October 2014

The Election Process vs. Mother Nature

Do you remember learning in school about visual marketing tricks? I do. I recall that manufacturers used to be allowed to write subliminal messages in parts of their product pictures ... like in the icing on Ms Crocker's cake. I also remember the teacher warning us, in an effort to curb our tv watching no doubt, that if we watched a commercial too many times we'd begin to believe what it told us.

Those facts still go through my mind often as I watch the boringly repetitive commercials put out by all kinds of manufacturers on television. I even catch myself singing their little jingles like: "Whatever your normal is!".

Free markets, free enterprise, and capitalism makes all of this acceptable it seems. Hypnosis marketing does indeed exist and has worked brilliantly for some companies regardless of the quality of their products OR the unethical practices they keep. @pple being at the top of that list. From here on, you'll notice that most computers shown on tv and in movies has that @pple logo on it.

But we have higher hopes for important things in this world don't we? We as a democratic society wouldn't allow hypnosis marketing to decide the next leader would we?

It seems we would and the Kingston Mayoral race is proving to be no different.

Driving past the Princess Street Loblaws or past the Frontenac Mall area is simply gross in my humble opinion. Every few meters we see a huge distracting sign ... and then another ... and then another. Remember teacher telling us that you only have to see something a certain number of times before you start believing it? Is this how the Mayor will be decided in my city?

Like everything, this sign thing has two sides. I actually sort of like seeing the campaign signs on my neighbor's lawns. It makes me proud to see them showing their political interests. I personally shun that old adage of never speaking about religion or politics. I wanna know what you think about those things and why! And ... maybe if we talked about them more, we'd understand them more.

But the signs in public areas should be stopped. They don't show a citizen's desired candidate, they only distract drivers, add to garbage pollution, and I dare say hypnotize some voters who will simply vote for the most recognizable name; rather than the candidate that represents their interests best.

As though that weren't annoying and potentially distracting enough, now we also get to deal with the added paper waste of flyers and business cards being left on our apartment doors by a few of the Mayoral candidates. In my building, those 5x7 laminated and brightly-coloured flyers littered the hall for days until my tired superintendents picked them up.

There has to be a better way. I wonder now as I see numerous campaign signs simply lying on the ground~ their thin, sharp, metal bases just ready to impale someone as the gusts of Autumn wind carry them through the air. Is there oversight on these signs? Is there anyone who is keeping track of how many signs go out ... and then how many signs come in after our Election race is won? Can we all agree that there should be? I mean, if we the tax-paying citizens of Kingston have to dispose of those campaign signs ourselves, which box would they go in? Blue or Grey?

And are they even recyclable?

Election campaign signs and flyers are akin to advertising. In this case it hits me as hypnosis marketing.